


interlude: dream

by bluesandbirds



Series: do you hear the people sing? [4]
Category: Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Clay | Dream-centric (Video Blogging RPF), Dream Smp, Gen, Moral Dilemmas, Villain Wilbur Soot, can be read as a stand-alone, l'manburg
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-19
Updated: 2020-10-19
Packaged: 2021-03-08 20:06:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 736
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27002452
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bluesandbirds/pseuds/bluesandbirds
Summary: Dream's not a bad guy. He wishes people would stop writing him into one.
Relationships: Clay | Dream & TommyInnit (Video Blogging RPF)
Series: do you hear the people sing? [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1971895
Comments: 26
Kudos: 460





	interlude: dream

**Author's Note:**

> lyrics from "word to the wise" from hadestown
> 
> dream was the villain in my last series, so i'll let him be the morally grey anti-hero in this one

Dream's got a brain like a bullet. He's renowned for his 1000 IQ moments. Sometimes, it's a lot to live up to. 

When he's racing through the forest, his best friends at his heels with menacing shouts. When he's dueling Technoblade for money and glory. When he's competing in a tournament, trapped on the wrong side of iron doors. All times when he's wished for a faster mind.

But those were all for fun, challenges with no long-term stakes.

In this moment, staring at TommyInnit with his crossbow pointed at Wilbur Soot, he's never needed it more.

_Gotta think quick  
_ _Gotta save face_

There are three things he knows right away.

One: Wilbur is right.

Dream wants his enemies crushed.

But Wilbur hadn't been an enemy since the war ended. He hadn't been one again until ramblings of _trinitrotoluene_ and _ambition_ spilled from his lips. Until he looked Dream in the eyes and said _well, that's what it's called._

Two: Wilbur is wrong.

Dream's been on the wrong side of history. This is not it.

Tommy and Wilbur built L'Manburg. There is no L'Manburg without them.

Schlatt is an almost too perfect picture of a tyrant with his chilling laughs and belladonna words. He won through deception and manipulation, and Dream has no doubt his rule will reflect that.

They were not the villains, but Wilbur is going off script, writing new chapters and twisting the narrative into something else entirely. 

However, a story can have multiple antagonists.

Three: Dream's next actions—whatever they are—will be set in ink for children to read until the end of time.

_Caught 'tween a rock and a hard place_

Dream's motives are much less logical than what Wilbur sees.

Yes, of course it does him well personally to have Jschlatt out of power, but that's only half of it. 

He cannot support L'Manburg. He cannot say that he misses the country or that he prefers it over Schlatt's regime.

But maybe he can admit (if only to himself) that Niki's cakes left on his doorstep made bad days less bitter. That Jack Manifold and Tubbo's laughter carried over by the wind brought a quirk to his own lips. That TommyInnit staring up at him in almost the same way he looks at Wilbur and Technoblade made something inside him fall apart.

_"This is the redemption arc, Tommy, you're my friend now!"_

That maybe L'Manburg and its people softened the heart of the king.

_Damned if you don't_  
 _Damned if you do  
_ _Whole damn nation's watching you_

Dream cannot outrightly support L'Manburg.

Not after he fought so profusely against them in the war.

Not when his closest friends stand opposite to them.

Not when Schlatt is a democratically elected leader and Dream is already painted as _tyrant_.

So, he supplies Tommy with gear, moving his pieces from the shadows.

_"Dream whispers to you: are you ok"_

And maybe they could have won that way. Wilbur and Tommy burst into L'Manburg, armed and backed by, not one, but two gods. But nothing is ever that easy.

_What'cha gonna do, what'cha gonna do_

Wilbur has lost it. He's spiraling, deeper and deeper into an abyss of his own making.

If Dream rejects his offer, he will only fall further, growing more paranoid and distrustful and erratic until he explodes. And then, he will collapse in on himself.

Normally, Dream would let him, if not for this:

_What'cha gonna do, what'cha gonna do now?_

Tommy will not leave Wilbur behind. Tommy is loud, and rude, and brash, but most of all, Tommy is loyal.

There’s something inside him that drives him to cling to people. To dive headfirst into friendships that will only leave him burned. To sacrifice his most prized possessions for his friends and their fantasy.

It is the same thing that will not allow him to abandon his volatile brother.

Tommy will not leave Wilbur. So Dream does what he must.

_Here's a little tip  
_ _Word to the wise  
_ _Here's a little snippet of advice_

He gives Wilbur the TNT to bring down a tyrant.

And if Wilbur becomes one in the process, then Dream will do what Tommy cannot.

Sometimes you don't get to be the good guy.

Dream says goodbye to his place in history, but he'll do his damndest to secure Tommy's.

_Men are fools_  
 _Men are frail  
_ _Give them a rope and they'll hang themselves_

**Author's Note:**

> the question is: does tommy collect older brother figures? or does dream collect little brother figures?  
> alternatively: do older brother figures collect tommy?  
> the answer is all.
> 
> on that same note, i just want tommy's older brother figures to stop letting him down. it started with wisp and just never stopped.


End file.
